Bird In The Hand Primitives

Primitive Folk Art Designs and Finished Items By: Robin Leuschen

" Who you are is God's gift to you........ What you do, is your gift to God !"

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Challenge Rug Progress...

I have been working on the antique challenge rug here and there...I made a mistake first of all, I didn't have a piece of linen left that was actually big enough for this design, but i am going to be keeping this rug, so I am just going to have to do a super thin type binding on the rug, or just sew binding fabric around the very edges and fold under, and there is still only going to be a row for the background in the very top portion of the rug where the quilt type star is. Secondly, because I knew I didn't have a large enough piece of linen left, I didn't enlarge the pattern quite as big as I should have, and i had to re-draw a few things, which i should of spaced further apart before drawing on the linen...Oh well, live and learn and keep learnin'.....lol
And...I am just so duhhhh..i didn't even make sure I had enough of the browns I started the tree on the left with, so I am really Mickey mousing the colors on this....How do you figure the amount of wool you need for a rug? As far as the individual elements in the design go ?? There has to be a better way than mine...I just eyeball it, look at the little bit of wool I have and say, yep that should be enough.....lol
It's been a weird week last week and so far this week, as my 18 year old just started a job at a McDonald's right down the road not too far, but they have her doing all weird hours, so I've been running back and forth alot, dropping off and picking up...
For me it's weird as I've gone from hermit and never behind the wheel to in and out almost every day since last Monday..It's good for me, yes, but I get so involved in projects or house cleaning and forget when it gets really close to the time to pick her up, but she does text me to remind me, cause she KNOWS how I am....lol

15 comments:

robyn i love this rug! colors too!and yes we learn as we go but you seem to be doing real well with the hooken! i keep blameing my duhhh moments on drugs i did in high school actually the drugs i should have done! my kids seem to text me alot too! enjoy your day robin!

So far, so good! I'm likin' it! I have this ready to work up with my punch needle, but haven't gotten around to it. As far as figuring how much wool you need, I usually fold a piece of wool into quarters and lay it over the motif - if it covers the design there is usually enough to do the job. Of course, this may vary if you hook really high or really close, but it seems to work for me okay.

I Love this rug you are working on,the colors are so nice....I never know how much wool to use for designs too,but that's when you can mix in a few different shades & surprise youself on how nice that can look ! Happy Hooking !!!

To determine the amount of wool you will need for background, or a motif I figur it this way: If hooking in #8 I need 4 layers of wool fabric to cover the piece, if I hook in #8.5 then I will need more because of automatically pulling loops higher.

The rug is looking simply awesome!!!! I love all your whimsey.I am a high-hooker and work, normally, in an 8 cut. I find (and I have been told) that you need 6x the amount of wool for the space. I never get nervous.....I find you can always fudge a little, and throw in a little extra color, if need be.I always pull my loops as tall as my wool is wide. (read that over a couple times - it will make sense).